Miller. — The Diptera Fauna of New Zealand. 305 



$. Eyes bare ; front brilliant cupreous, with a brilliant pink transverse 

 reflection in front of ocellar triangle, and clothed with a sparse brown pile 

 causing a pale-brown reflection. Face greenish-yellow, this colour extending 

 upward on each side to a point along frontal orbits ; face clothed on each 

 side with a short yellow pile ; a median blue-black stripe extending from 

 lunular area to mouth (fig. 33) ; cheeks and oral margin ochreous, the 

 former clothed with a short yellow pile which extends over the occiput. 

 Antennae .short, brownish-yellow with darker markings particularly along 

 the upper and front edges of the short rather truncated 3rd joint ; arista 

 dark brown ; mouth-parts brown ; occiput greyish-black, but in some 

 cases tawny below, this colour extending from oral margin. 



Thorax brilliant bronzy-green with a vestiture of short delicate hairs ; 

 a pale-yellow area on each side between the wing and humerus, and 

 extending in certain lights as pale brownish-yellow over the rneso- 

 pleurae ; scutellum amber-yellow, clothed with delicate pale hairs. Wings 

 clear and iridescent, the stigma brownish -yellow, veins tawny ; halteres 

 amber-yellow. Femora ochreous, but brownish distally, the posterior 

 pair distinctly so ; tibiae pale-brownish, the posterior darker centrally ; 

 tarsi brown. 



Abdomen linear but somewhat broader anterior to centre (fig. 36) ; 

 shiny dark-brown ; delicate pale hairs on sides of 1st and 2nd segments ; 

 a pair of distinct transverse linear ochreous spots on 2nd, 3rd ; and 4th 

 segments, and a pair of indistinct brownish spots on 5th segment. 



<?. Smaller and more slender than $ ; thorax shiny bronzy-black and 

 scutellum clothed with short and scattered black hairs ; the abdomen is 

 more hairy, elongate and narrow, and the spots are broader and somewhat 

 oblique ; genitalia tawny. 



<$. Length, 6 mm. $. Length, 9 mm. 



Plesiotype : No. 1236, D. M. 



Habitat. — Throughout New Zealand from August to May. The colour- 

 markings of this species may be darker or lighter. 



S. ropalus Walker. 



S. ropalus Walker, Cat. Dipt. Brit. Mus., p. 593 (1849) ; Hutton, 

 Cat. Dipt. N.Z., p. 44 (1881) ; Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 33, p. 41 

 (1901) ; Miller, N.Z. Jour. Agric, vol. 21, p. 335 (1920) ; 

 Miller and Watt, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 47, p. 278 (1915). 



A medium-sized fly with the face and sides of thorax yellow, 2 pairs 

 of abdominal spots and 2 transverse bands, one on the 3rd and the other 

 on the 4th segment. This species bears a superficial resemblance to Paragus 

 pseudo-ropalus n. sp. 



$. Eyes bare ; vertex and upper part of front bronzy-black to purple, 

 lower half greenish-yellow, with a narrow median tawny stripe seen in 

 some lights ; the whole thinly clothed with short black hairs ; 1st and 

 2nd joints of antennae tawny and with black bristles, the 2nd joint some- 

 what darker apically ; 3rd joint ovate but rather blunt at apex, brownish- 

 yellow but blackish-brown over upper edge, and clothed with minute 

 greyish pubescence, which also covers the blackish-brown arista ; lunular 

 area tawny. Face greenish-yellow, gently produced to brown knob, above 

 which is an indistinct median blackish-brown stripe ; anterior oral margin 

 brownish, the lower angles of face rather tawny ; oral margin and cheeks 



